A Brief Account of Marriage
By Jenny Cromwell
Marriage in Egyptian villages was a pretty informal affair. Few legal documents were written concerning marriage, and few texts discuss particulars – unless something goes wrong. Read more here.
A Coptic Mother-in-Law’s Curse
By Ágnes Mihálykó
Adam and Eve were the luckiest couple in the world: neither of them had a mother-in-law! Many of us would heartily agree with this joke – not just in our times, but also in antiquity. Yet, among the many harpies of mother-in-laws, few are as mean as the unnamed Coptic woman who cast a particularly malevolent curse against Tnoute … Read more here.
A Runaway Child Bride
By Jenny Cromwell
How early was too early to marry in the ancient world? If the answer is connected to being an adult, then what is an adult? And does that question differ for men and women? Read more here.
A Woman Doing Business
By Jenny Cromwell
A short letter from Antinoopolis (Sheikh Ibada) in central Egypt gives a glimpse into the life of a woman living in a major city sometime around the 7th century CE. Read more here.
An Abandoned Wife and Unpaid Alimony
By Jenny Cromwell
It’s a story that resonates throughout the ages: a man abandons his wife and their children for another woman. The story could be of a woman abandoning her husband and kids, but the story on this 7th century AD papyrus is of a man who leaves his wife. Read more here.
An Angry Tax Man
By Jenny Cromwell
Following the Arab conquest of Egypt in 641 CE (or Islamic conquest, it’s frequently referred to as both or either), a new tax was added to the growing list of impositions placed on the country’s population: the poll tax, payable by all non-Muslim adult males. Read more here.
Ancient Same Sex Love Spells
By Jenny Cromwell
Magic in the ancient world provided one means to help people deal with what life threw at them, whether health, money, or love, among the whole gambit of human day-to-day experiences. Read more here.
Bee Stories
By Jenny Cromwell
Whether it was for consumption, offerings to the gods, or for healing wounds, honey was important in ancient Egypt and so were bees. Read more here.
Blessing a Baby Against Every Illness
By Ágnes Mihálykó
Christians of Egypt received blessing from the church in many forms: as prayers of inclination at the end of the Eucharist, when the celebrant blessed the congregation before their departure, as private blessings issued by holy monks, or as material blessings (eulogiai), such as oil from a pilgrimage centre. Read more here.
Camel, O Camel: On Camels in Ancient Egypt
By Jenny Cromwell
I recently bought my first ever Playmobil set: Egyptian Warrior with Camel. It’s only taken me thirty odd years. But I can’t resist a camel. And this kit evokes one of the key images that comes to mind when we think of ancient Egypt: the quintessential image of camels in front of the pyramids. Camels, however, were not common in the pharaonic period – they are not indigenous to Egypt. Read more here.
Death in the Desert
By Jenny Cromwell
Life in the ancient world, before the development of modern medicine, was hard. Child mortality rates were high, life-expectancy was much lower than it is today, and illnesses and injuries that are easily cured now were often fatal. Life out in the oases of the western desert must have been especially difficult. Read more here.
“If God saves him from death”: Donation of a boy to a Coptic monastery
By Jenny Cromwell
On the 29 August 766 CE, a woman named Tachel daughter of Sophia from Luxor (ancient Apê) donated her son Athanasius to a local monastery, the monastery of Apa Phoibammon at Deir el-Bahri. Read more here.
Jealousy, Bullying, and Broken Thumbs
By Jenny Cromwell
While texts from day-to-day life provide immediate insights into the very personal concerns of individuals living in the ancient world, literary works also give glimpses into different aspects of daily life, even if their accounts may be embellished. In the Life and Martyrdom of two saints, Panine and Panew, the story begins with the boyhood friendship of the two, who would later go on to become monks and then martyrs. One episode in the life of Panine sends us back to his classroom, and what follows focuses on the window into the world of education in late antique Egypt that it contains. Read more here.
“My milk being good from both breasts”
By Jenny Cromwell
In a Coptic letter from the 7th century CE, a wet nurse Maria expresses her grief and condolences over the death of a young girl. Read more here.
Parental Grief and Child Mortality
By Jenny Cromwell
At birth, there was only a 66 per cent chance of celebrating your first birthday: one-third of all new-borns in the ancient world died before reaching that milestone. Read more here.
Pay After Reading: The Cost of Education in Late Antique Egyptian Villages
By Jenny Cromwell
In the ancient world, education – learning to read and write – wasn’t a right and was accessible by only a small number of people. Only 5–10% of the population was literate. But what does this mean, what constitutes being literate? Read more here.
Potential Paternity Problems
By Jenny Cromwell
Go Jerry! Go Jerry! But without a Jerry Springer, Maury Povich, Jeremy Kyle (or your country’s equivalent) where could you turn when you had a serious family scandal to talk about? Read more here.
Protecting the Taxpayer, Protecting the Taxman
By Jenny Cromwell
On 17 April 731, an Egyptian priest John son of the late Victor wrote a declaration for the state treasury, represented by the Muslim official Rashid. He had paid two gold coins (holokottinosin the document) for his village’s taxes, representing the headman, Peter. However, it turned out that he – and so his village – had paid half a gold coin too much. Read more here.
Renting, Tenants, and Landlords in Egypt
By Jenny Cromwell
There are several constants in life. Taxes, prostitution, death, and renting. Whether moving to a new city or new country, you need a place to live and for many this means navigating the vagaries of letting agents, landlords, and contracts. Read more here.
Sickness, Treatments, and Medical Books in Late Antique Egyptian Villages
By Jenny Cromwell
“I greet my Father Athanasios. I spoke to you about the medical book. I often wanted to come south, but looking after here has not allowed me to come south. I wanted to come south, (but) the roads prevented me. Now, please send it to me, either (by) Pmoute or give it to Aaron and he will send it to me via his brother. If I can examine it (for) two days, I will return it.” Read more here.
Spell to Attract a Woman
By Jenny Cromwell
“For a woman’s love: a really effective charm.
You should write these things on a tin sheet.”
So begins the text of a Coptic magical spell from the 6th/7th century. Read more here.
Struggling to Provide
By Jenny Cromwell
In early December, one year in the seventh century, a man called Damianos from the Fayum asked for a cash loan and was given it from another man, Shenoute. Short loan contracts such as this one are pretty common, although the amount and type of details provided vary from case to case. Read more here.
The Powers of Hell: A Deadly Curse from Medieval Egypt
By Korshi Dosoo
Somewhere in Upper Egypt, around the tenth century CE, someone wanted to destroy a man named Haron. Read more here.
Warm Hoopoe’s Blood for the Eyes: A Coptic Remedy
By Jenny Cromwell
Ever suffered from dry eyes? A late Coptic medical text may have the cure for you! Read more here.
